Sheets including films account for about 30% of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) products. Among them, about 8% of the sheets are manufactured by coating a plastic sol where paste poly(vinyl chloride) resin is dispersed in additives such as a plasticizer, a stabilizer, and the like, on a substrate retaining a sheet form, such as, paper or fabric, followed by heating and then cooling, or are subjected to a calendering process.
These PVC sheets are mainly ornamental sheets, tarpaulin, a flooring material, wallpaper, packaging wrap, and the like. The ornamental sheet includes a decoration sheet and an interior sheet, which is a synthetic resin material used for decorating and finishing surfaces of products. The decoration sheet is used as a surface finishing material, such as interior building materials, furniture, electronic products, or the like, and refers to a synthetic resin material sheet having no adhesive layer. That is, it refers to a product where a print layer and a wear-resistant and scratch-resistant transparent film are laminated on a polyvinyl chloride or polypropylene material, and the classification and use thereof are as follows.
ClassificationUseOver-Layinterior and outerior buildingmaterials, doors, floorings,Membranefurniture for living room,shoe shelf, kitchen utensilsWrappingdoor frame, chassisEdgeedges of furnitures and thelikeCoating for steelelectronic goods, such asrefrigerator, air conditioner,and the like
The interior sheet is mainly used as an interior finishing material inside buildings, and refers to a synthetic resin material adhesive sheet where an adhesive agent is coated on one surface of a product. The main uses thereof are interior finishing materials for aircraft, railroad, marine or the like, including interior finishing materials for public buildings.
Tarpaulin is widely used for covers for various vehicles, leisure tents, industrial tents, roof covers for large-sized buildings, advertisement, and even for conveyer belts of various kinds of foods and products and for various rubber boats.
The flooring materials are classified into a residential flooring material for household and a commercial flooring material for public building and office. The wallpaper is classified for multi-use facility and for household. The packaging wrap is classified for household, for business purpose, and for food packaging.
Currently, most sheets are formed of mainly a polyvinyl chloride material, but replacement by olefin, polylactic acid, polyethylene terephthalate, or the like, is progressing due to various and wide regulations put on these products. With respect to environmental hazards controversy and regulatory trends put on polyvinyl chloride products, the cores of the controversy are that a large amount of dioxin, which is an environmental hormone, is generated when polyvinyl chloride itself is burned and a plasticizer, and that a stabilizer used as additives are in the center of worldwide regulations (WEEE/RoHS/REACH(SVCH)). Moreover, large amounts of poisonous gases, such as hydrochloric acid (HCl) and the like, and dioxins, which are fatal to the human body, are generated when polyvinyl chloride products are burned as wastes due to fire or difficulty in recycling. What is worse, it has been currently claimed that polyvinyl chloride itself is registered as EU ROHS restriction materials, and the more importantly, consumer groups are specifically demanding restrictions on the use of polyvinyl chloride products. For example, Greenpeace has spearheaded restrictions on the use of polyvinyl chloride resin in electronic products, and then electronic industries worldwide are copying Greenpeace. In particular, children and housewives, environmental pollution sensitive groups, tend to strongly refuse the polyvinyl chloride products and the trend thereof is increasing, and as a result, government regulations are being introduced.
Alternative materials employing eco-friendly universal plastic have been developed in order to solve problems of the polyvinyl chloride products. However, the alternative materials have problems in that physical properties are problematic, for example, they may be fragile in winter due to deficient flexibility thereof; process additives needs to be further used at the time of a post treatment process due to deterioration in printability, cutability, and adhesion, resulting in burden of expenses; and high costs are required due to producing by extrusion and high cost of the material itself, resulting in low economic feasibility.